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Close to 500 Kanata residents braved arctic conditions Monday night to get information and voice their concerns over proposed plans to redevelop the Kanata Golf and Country Club into new homes.

The meeting, hosted at the John Mlacak Centre by Kanata North Coun. Jenna Sudds and featuring area community association presidents Neil Thomson and Lianne Zhou, served as a show of strength in the community, with calls to action and fundraising for whatever battles may lie ahead.

As they entered the centre, attendees were greeted by a phalanx of people holding signs that read “Kanata Lives,” “Green not Greed,” “Greenspace Matters,” and “People Before Profit.”

ClubLink, the largest golf course operator in Canada, announced on Dec. 14 that it planned, in partnership with Minto Communities and Richcraft Homes, to turn the golf course colloquially known as Kanata Lakes into a subdivision. So far, the company has made no official development proposal to the city. ClubLink, Minto and Richcraft representatives were not invited to Monday’s meeting.

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Any such plan, according to Sudds and others, would contravene the agreement signed in 1981 by the city of Kanata and the Campeau Corp, stipulating that 40 per cent of the development remain green space. The golf course currently makes up about 30 per cent of that green space, or roughly 12 per cent of the community.

The Kanata Golf and Country Club.Wayne Cuddington/Ottawa Citizen

Additionally, Sudds said, the agreement indicates that the golf course remain so in perpetuity. If ClubLink decides to cease its golf operations there, the city can take it over at no cost and either run it itself, or get a third party to manage the course.

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Thomson, head of the Kanata Beaverbrook Community Association, said he was getting cheques “up the ying yang” from supporters.

Resident Sue Cousineau said the proposal was “just awful.”

“The green space for us is essential. It’s part of our health, it’s part of our physical activity, and we use it. The people in this community cherish that kind of thing, and it’s part of our DNA of living here.”

Several hundred people attended a public meeting at the Mlacak Centre in Kanata to discuss the proposed redevelopment of Kanata Lakes golf course. Former city councillor Marianne Wilkinson attended. January 21, 2019. Errol McGihon/PostmediaErrol McGihon/Postmedia

Cousineau also wonders whether the roads and infrastructure could even handle. “Development has gone rampantly wild here.”

According to Thomson, nine or 10 of the course’s current members have notified the city that they’d be willing to purchase the course, or manage it for the city, if necessary.

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But the course, he added, is much more than simply a golf facility to its surrounding community.

“There was a 1985 amendment that says the public has full rights to it in the winter, as long as they respect and don’t damage it. There’s a very large skating pond that people play hockey on every day, and cross-country skiing. And in the 50 years that that green space has been there, people walk their dogs there in the evening, kids criss-cross it going to school.”

Zhou, head of the Kanata Lakes Community Association, said, “We care about the green space, which is the heart of the community.”

The meeting ended with a question-and-answer period, during which the public made clear its opposition to the development plan. One speaker, John Hunter, who has lived off the 18th fairway for 26 years, says the issue seems clear cut: “The city has the legal documents defining the use of this greenspace in perpetuity. Therefore the city has the right, and the responsibility, to enforce the adherence to this contract.

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“It’s up to the city to put a stop and say ‘No, you can’t do this. We have a contract. It’s in force. You signed it. You abide by it. The greenspace stays as is.”

Another resident drew cheers and applause when he voiced his worry about property values should a development deal go through. “The day this was announced, our property values took a hit, and I think our taxes should now reflect that until this is resolved.”

According to about 750 responses to a survey put out by Sudds, 95 per cent of residents oppose the development; 85 per cent use the green (or white) space in the winter; and 96 per cent were influenced by the green space when they moved in in the first place.

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